Historical Narrative And Individual Reshaping:the Study Of Ibis Trilogy

Written by the Indian writer Amitav Ghosh,“The Ibis Trilogy”,including Sea of Poppies,River of Smoke and Flood of Fire,is the historical novels which begins in the eve the opium war.“The Ibis Trilogy” describes the social conditions of India and China under the opium trade and the Opium War of the 19 th century.It also strongly criticized colonialism and the so-called "free trade." Through careful reading of the text,this paper explores the novel’s unique historical narrative,and interprets the fate,emotion,and personal choice of individuals who are overwhelmed by history in the historical context of the grand.This paper is divided into three parts: introduction,main body and conclusion.The introduction first gave a brief introduction to Amitav Ghosh’s learning experiences and his novel as well as his award.It also includes the domestic and foreign research status,significance of topics,research value,research ideas and research methods of the “The Ibis Trilogy”.The body part is divided into three chapters:Chapter one defines the "Ibis Trilogy" as the new historical novel.It holds that the novel breaks the boundaries between history and literature.It also discusses the historical consciousness of the novel and demonstrates the attitude of the Opium War in China,Britain and India.In order to stop history repeating itself,we must comprehensively understand history and be on guard against the influence of cultural hegemony on history and reality.Chapter two examines the role played by India as a British colony in the opium trade and the Opium War,and the impact of historical events on all sectors of India.Chapter three focuses on the text of the novel and analyzes the meaning of two important spatial places,the ship named “Ibis” and the Thirteen Factories.At the same time,it selects several main characters to analyze their self-awakening and revolt under specific historical conditions.The conclusion part reviews the content of the trilogy,it affirms that Ghosh pays attention to the individual fate and self-shaping the great historical circumstances,which makes the novel not only have historical truth but also emotional reality.At the same time,it points out the hidden contradictions and deficiencies.The novel containsthe writer’s personal consciousness,and we should be more objective in dealing with history.